If diesel and petrol engines are to be banned in the coming decades, could we go back to the future? 

Drivers around Lostwithiel, Liskeard and Pensilva could see the way things used to be after the weekend’s Boconnoc Steam Fair as this handsome 1937 traction engine wended its way home from the show.

But if it’s the future of commuting, drivers may need to get used to a slower pace of life.

Owned by the Daniel, Parkin and Thomas families, Hilda took some three hours to do the 14-mile journey from Boconnoc to her home in Pensilva, breaking into a top speed of 6mph and doing roughly 7kg of coal to the mile

‘It’s hard work,’ said driver Graham Parkin, ‘and it would be nicer if the roads were a little emptier.’

‘And this is how people used to work, of course.’